HBO Eyes Tea Leoni Fashion Comedy Pilot

EXCLUSIVE: HBO is looking to add more estrogen to its current slate of all-guy comedy series: Entourgage, Eastbound & Down, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Bored to Death, Hung, The Life and Times of Tim and How to Make it America. A new comedy project staring and produced by Tea Leoni is in serious consideration for a pilot pickup at the pay cable network, whose biggest comedy hit was the female-centered Sex and the City. Like Sex and the City, the Tea Leoni comedy, tentatively titled Spring/Fall, also takes place in New York City. It is set against the backdrop of New York’s fashion world and stars Leoni as half of a dysfunctional partnership between two women with different approaches to career, family, and friendship. Kate Robin who was a writer/producer on HBO’s Six Feet Under, wrote the script. She and Leoni are executive producing Spring/Fall with documentary filmmaker R.J. Cutler, who knows a thing or two about fashion having directed The September Issue documentary last year. Leoni’s manager, Jimmy Miller, also executive produces. This is a nice get for HBO: for the past decade, Leoni has been probably the most consistently pursued comedic actress for pilots on broadcast and cable but had declined to return to TV until now. With the exception of a guest spot on her husband’s Fox drama The X-Files in 2000, Leoni, repped by UTA and Mosaic, has not done television since the end of her NBC comedy series The Naked Truth in 1998. HBO already has a female-centered comedy series coming out next year: the Mike White/Laura Dern vehicle Enlightened.

Is it me or is HBO trying to copy Showtimes success with it’s female middle aged comedies?

caleb • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

I think its you, unless she has multiple personalities or a drug addiction they dont seem to be copying Showtime.

caleb • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

sorry, I forgot to say maybe she has cancer. haha. cancer.

Rob • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

As for jack’s question, being that Showtime has almost exclusively female middle-aged comedies — all about off beat women trying to make it in a middle class world — and potentially two of the approximately 15 HBO series will be centered around women, it doesn’t look like HBO’s copying anyone.

Really? • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Enlightened sounds like a total copy of Big C from what I hear and from what I’ve seen of it…

chik'nfins • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

I’m sure HBO couldn’t wait to rip off the cancer comedy with infantile husband and grumpy neighbor jokes. Sounds just like Mike White

clarence • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Almost exclusively? Dexter.Californication. Vs. Weeds, Tara, Nurse J, and Cancer girl. Maybe I’m leaving certain shows out. But it looks like about a third of their lineup is male leads. Two-thirds female middle aged is two-thirds, not almost exclusively.

ronnie • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Showtime’s programming is shifting..as Clarence points out, in addition to Dexter & Californication, Showtime also has their historical saga franchise, formerly Tudors, now Borgias…plus the two new
(Greenblatt) shows premiering in January–Shameless and Matt LeBlanc’s Episodes–are male-centric..More importantly nearly everything Nevins has announced is male lead/male skewing, although not like SPIKE–all of these shows will have appeal to female audience potentially as well: Homeland, the Howard Gordon-produced political thriller-drama based on the Israeli show; the Mark Ruffalo/Anthony Edwards drama about partners in a crisis management firm; the Jeff Daniels/Tim Busfield dramedy Happily Ever After; Richard Shepherd’s Corkscrew..hm..looks like maybe it’s the other way around–Showtime is imitating HBO!! :)

Boon • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Tea’s great, have loved her since Flirting With Disaster. It’s nearly impossible for talented actresses who are not megastars like Angelina or Sandra to not consider TV. Besides which, particularly for women, the roles on TV are far superior to the roles in movies where they generally get to be the wife, girlfriend or prostitute. My question is– with so many high profile projects in development @ HBO what are the odds that they actually take your thing and put it on the air. Do any of these folks worry about this?

Anonymous • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

“EntourGage”?

TV Watcher • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

A show about fashion? A can’t wait to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Luke • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Both possible shows sound absolutely horrific based on what you wrote here and I’ve seen elsewhere. Though at least the Laura Dern one would have a star with talent involved. Can’t say the same for the hag Tea Leoni whose last show was a trainwreck and has never built much of a fanbase in the real world. If it wasn’t for David Duchovny sharing a bed with her, she wouldn’t have gone the way of Sherilyn Fenn and every other marginally talented 90s TV woman of a certain age.

thtruth • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Jesus, you’re an idiot. And a very self-assured one, it would seem. Tea Leoni has been one of the most sought after actresses, by TV networks and filmmakers, for years.

ronnie • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

agree with thtruth, Luke–Tea Leoni is a terrific actress, can do drama and comedy and as other posters have said, has been highly sought after. I wouldn’t describe The Naked Truth as a trainwreck–it lasted three seasons, and if there’s anyone to blame for the quality of that show being less than stellar, it’s probably the writers..and A Hag?? In what universe is Tea Leoni a hag?? Maybe you’d like to be sharing Duchovny’s bed is that it? –is little Luke jealous?

Emi • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Luke. I agree totally with you excpet for the part of her sleeping with duchonvy, who have been legally divorced for almost two years. In fact, they hadn’t been a couple for a lot longer than that. They just signed a pr contract to help “clean” their images and put HER back in the spotlight (as if it’s going to be any help). It’ll be an easy character for her to play since she’s gay in RL.

The Devil Wears Prada was already a very successful movie.
Tea is very difficult. They took a lot of the guts out of the documentary for this to be half hour. She’s a younger Anna Wintour. It could be fun. I don’t know. Feels done already.

All Hat No Cattle • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

HBO makes really pretty shows…but the HBO of Albrecht and Strauss was about paradigm shifting. It seemed motivated by the desire to give an audience something that they hadn’t seen before and lately that ain’t happening. True Blood being a notable exception.

They are starfucking in the extreme these days and it’s going to bite them in the ass. They got to where they are by discovering talent, not giving said talent multi-year development deals.

Tommy • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Uh, Boardwalk Empire which many critics have given high praise is something completely original. It has a metacritic score of 88. Luck is also completely original as is Treme. Treme got better throughout the 1st season. And starfucking? It was the Chris Albrecht era that had Ian McShane in Deadwood. They also have Game of Thrones coming up. So, their development on drama side is pretty damn great. And starfucking? Showttime does that too with Mary Louise Parker and David Duchovny and Laura Linney.

James • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

You’re right Boardwalk Empire is a great show. Episode 4 was superb. And that Chalky White speech was incredible.

Paul • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Episode 4, Anastasia was excellent of BE. I thought the entire Nucky and Margaret story OUTSTANDING. This episode gave birth to what the series can be. Excellent writing and direction and the best of the four so far.

Jason • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Their comedies aren’t great. Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, Luck and Treme are shows we’ve never seen before. Boardwalk Empire has a metacritic score of 88. Episode 4 was fantastic. And starfucking? During the Chris Albrecht era, they got Ian McShane to star in Deadwood. Showtime does the same thing too with Laura Linney, Toni Collette and Mary Louise Parker. So, it’s not just HBO.

Phogmahone • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

I don’t rate it’s chance of getting on air

This seems to be a habit with HBO .

Announce a project with a female lead and/or Showrunner . A couple will even go to pilot and then that’s the last we hear of them .

The only exception to that was the Laura Dern one .

Gloria • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Sue Naegel has built a mostly male centric slate in one hour. Male creators and showrunners and directors. Although 51% of the world population is female in the world of HBO they barely exist. Not that women creators and directors don’t exist. HBO doesn’t seem to want to hire them.

Uh • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

It’s a little more specific than that. It’s “Male creators and showrunners” whom they’ve worked with before. David Milch, Alan Ball, David Simon, even Terry Winter having been a Sopranos EP. The Mark Wahlberg production company. In fairness to Naegle, that seemed to be a practice that Strauss practiced also. Look for the Big Love guys to get a new show after BL folds.

I guess Game of Thrones is David Benioff who hasn’t done something for HBO before. But generally speaking, they seem to keep going back to the wells they’ve gone to before, in terms of the creators, at least for the dramas.

Oscar • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Confused as isnt this project created by a woman and starring a woman? Half the people here argue that HBO is copying Showtime with Female driven shows and the other half argue that HBO has no female driven shows. Yet, they get attacked for this and Enlightened – confusing.

Jenny • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

What about Hung, Sue Naegle’s first project? It has a female co-showrunner (Colette Burson), a strong female lead (Jane Adams), and to judge by last season, more female directors than almost any show out there.

Mar • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Loved her in FWD, but have yet to love her in anything else. For me Tea’s really not anyone I’m drawn to or much interested in watching. She’s pretty one-note. She’s always Tea. But I do see I’m the minority here, so there you go.

Ryan • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

wait…

what happened to TILDA, the comedy/drama pilot starring Diane Keaton?

Didn’t HBO take that to series? I mean, what the hell: Keaton, Ellen Page, Sanaa Lathan as a rival gossip columninist, and apparently/ALLEGEDLY, the main character was “QUITE” similar to Nikki Finke, but not really? (*RIGHT* Nikki get that check if this show ends UP at HBO and you see aspects of your life being played out in the episodes! :))

Was is the deal with HBO backing down on potential series with strong women as leads?

They did the same thing to WELCOME TO THE MALADYS (the pilot was great too!) which would have starred Molly Parker (RIDICULOUSLY UNDERRATED) and Sarah Michelle Gellar (call her what you want, give her the *RIGHT* material and she will OWN IT) as dysfunctional sisters at odds with themselves, each other, their family and the world?

UGH…HBO is really starting to suck asstacular balls these days.

And, seriously, can they just CANCEL ENTOURAGE? I mean, the show was good like 4 or 5 seasons ago.

Ben • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Entourage has only more season left. And Boardwalk Empire is a great series that has a metacritic score of 88 and will win a shit load of awards.

Marina • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

This woman’s acting never impressed me. Always seems to play the same character no matter how diverse her character may be.

AT • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

How many of these negative comments were made by men vs. by women? Just something to think about.

Cindy C • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

Looking forward to seeing Tea back. $$$$$$

Ann • on Oct 14, 2010 2:34 pm

I don’t get it. In every media article, she’s always mentioned as “the most sought after comedic actress.” I just don’t think she’s ever owned a single character she’s played. There’s no relatability there and the only successes she’s been in were the tentpole movies she barely had a supporting role in.

She’s beautiful, sure. But I wouldn’t call her fashionable exactly. Even SJP has a specific fashion sense. Who knows, maybe she’ll play the “unfashionable” one.